[WITI No. 74] Hallo after 90+ days
taking too many courses, Cultural literacy is dying and so is the future. Nature vs. Wind Turbine, nature wins.
Hallo my gentle audience…
A reader of this newsletter and writer of his own cool newsletter called The Supply Times pinged me today to ask what happened to my newsletter. I’ve been thinking about restarting, so if you haven’t forgotten about What is the Information?, I’m back! This newsletter is a very short summary of what I’m reading, listening to, thinking about.
What have I been doing over the last 90 days or so…
Took Espree Devora’s follow on Podcasting course, search #podcastbet on Twitter. I recommend her stuff, I totally bit off more than I could chew but learned a ton.
Joined Daniel Vassallo’s Smallbets community. Daniel was a high paid Amazon developer who quit his job and has been building a portfolio of small bets where he aims to duplicate his success. So far, he’s hit gold with this community.
Took Hassan Osman’s course on How to Build a Course on Udemy. It was short and sweet. I estimate it will take at least 60 hours of work to get a course in the can. It could be a small bet.
Currently, I’m dipping into the following books:
Key Person of Influence by Kevin Harrington & Daniel Priestly
The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning by Margareta Magnusson
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
Books I’ve recently finished:
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway. We visited Paris in November. I want to go back and thought this might put in the mood. Obviously, Paris in 1921 is so different than today. I often lose sight of just how luxurious my own life would seem today with central heat and air conditioning and indoor plumbing. As Hemingway tells it, he had a piss pot and had to buy wood to keep his place warm in the winter. Hemingway has plenty to teach us about cultural literacy, I found myself searching Wikipedia for the likes of George Braque(artist), Alfred Sisley(artist), Paul Verlaine(poet), Boutet de Monval(artist) among many others. The idea of cultural literacy is in decline in the US. I encountered the idea in high school where I did exercise familiarizing myself to about 1,000 terms and studying about 100 of them in depth. E.D. Hirsch coined the term and wrote the book where he explains that a basic level of “cultural literacy” is required to actively participate in a nation’s culture. We’ve gotten away from the majority of people consuming the same information in the internet age. It’s the curse of the Long Tail. Moreover, the advances in time asynchronicity for mass media consumption means we can’t discuss the final episode of Cheers, Seinfeld or even the Sopranos anymore. We are losing that commonality.
Hemingway recalls a story about excursion with F. Scott Fitzgerald. I won’t spoil you with the details but the trip and their later interactions and Hemingway’s later observations provide another backdrop for Fitzgerald’s masterpiece, The Great Gatsby.
How to Get Rich by Felix Dennis. The title is cringe as hell but I wish I read this book when I was twenty years old. Practical advice from someone’s who is on top 100 wealthiest English. It’s got some English quirk but the information is useful. I got a copy for my daughter who wants to read it especially because of the title. Yes, I’m probably creating a monster.
The End of the World is Just the Beginning by Peter Zeihan. This book is one of those books that just makes a ton of sense. Peter is an export geostrategist and population expert. It should be no secret to you that the world’s population mostly in the West is decreasing. And the decrease is beyond replacement levels. Zeihan’s other theory is that the US will no longer be the guarantor of protections on the seas(unless you’re on Team America) and globalization was we know it, is likely at end. The future ain’t so bright if you’re not the US or one of its allies. Famine, Piracy, global reconfiguration - the next 20 years are gonna be lit!
Word of the week: lee
Find of the week: Nature vs. Green energy
+++
Would love to hear from you guys! Has anything gotten you really excited! How about me starting up the newsletter again…lol. Have some thoughts about what’s cultural and what’s literacy! Light up them comments!
Know someone who might like What is the Information? Smash the button below.
That’s all for tonight! See you in a week!
-George
Gatsby has one of my all time favorite literary quotes. I won’t tell you now, as it’s something of a spoiler. Glad you’re back.